Strategies for an imperfect memory

 

They say as you get older, two things are the first to go. Memory is one of them. I forget what the other is.

Forgive the dad joke, but none of us remember everything, and age only makes it worse.

I have a series of tools and strategies to help remember important things. And me, being me, they involve technology.

After my medical, err let’s call it a medical “sabbatical”, of 2024, I see a lot of doctors. I’m doing okay, there are just things to keep an eye on. I have taken to asking doctors if I may audio record my appointments. Only one has refused.

Once I have the recording, I bring up Google’s Gemini AI. You do not even have to write a prompt. Just attach the audio file with the + button, and then hit the Play button triangle to have it run. It will create as summary of the conversation.

I pay $20 a month for Gemini Pro, I tested it with the free version, and it would not accept a nine minute long recording for processing. The paid Pro version did.

Otter.ai is an alternative. The free plan processes 300 minutes a month of audio. It generates both a transcript and a summary.

And if you phone records calls, I’ve found insurance companies, contractors etc. all readily agree to being recorded. After all, most already recording you and notify you they are recording. It is only fair they agree to be recorded.

Once done, run your audio through Gemini or Otter.ai (or another service like theirs) and get a summary of that call.

Be aware too, some vendors are recording you while meeting with you in your own home. A local HVAC/Plumber service sent me a text reminding me of an upcoming visit, and it included this text : Please note that your appointment may be audio recorded for quality and training purposes.

Be sure I too recorded our interaction.

And I asked one of my doctors if I could record, and he agreed, but also told me that he had been recording, and that an AI summary would be available in my Patient Portal. It was a different report from a medical chart type report, and more in line with what my process created.

Now when I visit a doctor, I can read a summary of what we discussed in the last visit. I store these summaries in Google Drive, so it is easy to read them on my phone as well.

I can only imagine how valuable this would be to record a college lecture, or meetings and get a summary of the content.

And there are increasing numbers of AI devices that one can wear to listen and summarize conversations you are in.

Some are designed to be clipped onto clothing and be unobtrusive. Smart glasses on the market now may look like ordinary glasses but are able to transcribe and summarize meetings you are in. You would never notice their presence.

And some states, like mine, are One party recording States. That means if one person in the conversation agrees to be recorded, the others in attendance do not need to know or consent. That one party is the person who brings the device to listen. Check the laws for your country and state.

What about privacy? In 1999, a tech mogul said “Privacy is dead. Get over it.” He was speaking of the impact on privacy from the internet, government data collection, financial and insurance company data collection. And that data collection has gotten even worse.

Every vendor we call records us. Credit bureaus maintain huge amounts of data on us. Doctors use electronic charting to keep medical records and share them with other physicians as needed, and insurance companies.

License plate readers track our cars movements. Our cell phones report relative location by what cell towers we are near. And if we have location services turned on, as most of us do so we can use mapping services, our phones are reporting our precise location.

For everyone of those data compromises, we get benefits too. Better coordinated health care, financial lines of credit, vehicle navigation, and more.

We can collect our own data too to serve us. That’s where recordings of meetings, classes, phone conversations and such are of value.

So consider the tradeoffs.

Cross posted from my Substack Newsletter.